


The Setting Sun

by amyponders



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Canon, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Student/Teacher, Angst, Angst and Feels, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Canon Related, Dark, F/M, Falling In Love, Feels, Ficlet, Heavy Angst, How Do I Tag, Implied Relationships, Implied Sexual Content, Inner Dialogue, Jeagan, Minor Jean Grey/Logan, Mutants, No Dialogue, No Sex, Not Actually Unrequited Love, OTP Feels, Older Man/Younger Woman, Possessive Behavior, Post-X-Men: Days of Future Past, Power Imbalance, Self-Hatred, Sensuality, Short, Short One Shot, Tags Are Hard, Teacher-Student Relationship, Underage - Freeform, Unrequited Love, Unrequited Lust, Unresolved Sexual Tension, X-Men Inspired, X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), Young Jean Grey, logan x jean, movieverse, sophie turner's jean grey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-13 03:20:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28646676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amyponders/pseuds/amyponders
Summary: Logan reflects on the nature of his relationship with Jean, a young student under his care while he desperately tries to keep his feelings for her from eating him alive.
Relationships: Jean Grey/Logan (X-Men)
Kudos: 18





	The Setting Sun

**Author's Note:**

> I'm back for a short one shot with one of my favorite pairings. 💗
> 
> Thoughts?

It was dusk and Logan was sitting on the leather couch of the common room, shadows half-covering his face while he looked at Jean with intent eyes. His thoughts were a locked vault, not a single word spoken. Dark lashes blinked slowly over his bright hazel eyes, and the ghost of a smile threatened to break his composure. She had that effect on him, and to this day, after almost a year of knowing her and following her around like a lost pup, he still wondered what was it about her that enthralled him so. 

Maybe it was her vibrant scarlet hair, tousled in a half braid over her dainty bare shoulders, just enough ivory skin showing beneath her cropped shirt to drive him wild. Above her neck stood her soft jawline that held her proud high cheekbones in place. Her eyes were the color of the setting sun that gave its last glimpse of light, with a thick coat of lashes that sprung shadows upon her face.

She had a heart-shaped mouth and lips ripe as a peach that stirred the kind of crazed hunger you only feel when you are denied what you crave most. Her nose sat proudly in the middle of her face in between those pretty eyebrows that shot up every time she gestured while telling her story. It was the second time that day he had heard it - they had spent the day together, but Marie, Scott, and Jubilee had just arrived looking for gossip - and it just got better every time. 

Or rather, she looked lovelier each time: her pupils dilating with the quickness that only rises from young enthusiasm. Still, he didn't mind the repetition. Maybe it was because of the way her silky voice rose and then sunk to a playful tone that spiked the hair behind his neck, and lit a hot flame that ran up his thighs, only to disappear with an almost painful throb between his legs.

Or maybe, it was her energetic personality. And that facility that Jean had to make him feel young and carefree again. When she first arrived at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, Xavier had insisted he tutor her, what with Logan being the strongest mutant around beside him. He said it would do him good to have someone to train and care for, then he smiled knowingly - in that infuriating way Logan hated - as if he knew that she would pan out to be Logan’s only weakness. 

The first few months Logan resisted the pull of her allure with an almost supernatural ability. It took every ounce of his strength to teach her, help her, look after her and not let her inside his heart. Emotions had always been the  chink in his armor.  That’s why he insisted on burying them in deep ditches in the graveyard of his heart. He kept telling himself that he’d been hurt enough. That  _ he _ had hurt enough people. The only reason he stayed in the school and helped Xavier was that it gave his life a sense of structure - to keep from relapsing into his old ways - and because Xavier had already seen all the garbage that was behind his walls. They were friends and it was too late to shut him out, but Logan had promised himself he would be more careful, somehow warier in the future. 

Then along came Jean, with her sweet disposition and tragic past and naive way of taking in the world and his heart turned to mush. Jean dusted off the cobwebs and made her home inside it. At this point, there was nothing Logan wouldn’t do for her. She trusted him with everything. Every crisis, every heartbreak, every insecurity, good moment, or future plan. 

Logan consoled her, protected her, and taught her everything she needed to know. And everyone knew she was his protegée, his stellar student, his favored one. No one dared pick on her anymore. None would risk his wrath. All knew that if someone harmed her in any way, it would be the last thing in their sorry lives they ever did.

He delighted in her because she gave him plenty of reasons to feel alive, to keep on carrying on, in spite of his reluctance to act in juvenile ways when he had long passed that threshold and seen all the things he had seen. Logan looked away and glanced quizzically at his reflection in the windowpane to his left. A few stray gray hairs were starting to sprout in his beard again. A sudden cloud of embarrassment and guilt poured over his head. 

_ You're too old for that fresh flower _ , his mind spoke. 

The small crowd broke into laughter - as if mocking his own silent rebuke and snapping him out of his reverie - and he realized then that Jean had finished telling her story. 

He gave her a half-smile, a little out of time when Jean glanced at him inquisitively, a question radiating from her dilated pupils.  _ What's wrong? _ They seemed to ask. 

_ Nothing _ , Logan answered with a curt shake of the head.

She knew there was something haunting him, wearing him down. She had always known. She just couldn’t find out what it was. Jean was aware of the layers that separated Logan from her, and she was determined to drag him completely out of the shadows and into the light. And in time she would. Even Logan knew he would not be able to keep this on forever. But now was not the time.

And so she turned to Marie and carried on with the conversation. 

_ Good. _

It would be better if the night would go on this way, with all of them reunited around the couch telling stories and Jean oblivious to the fire she ignited inside him. He could hold on for a little longer. For now.

**Author's Note:**

> Look me up on Tumblr! deans-ch-ch-cherrypie.tumblr.com
> 
> In case you want to support me: https://ko-fi.com/amyponders


End file.
